[TR] Chair Peak conditions as viewed from the base - NE Buttress and North Face 12/10/2011

[CamelJockey]

Trip: Chair Peak conditions as viewed from the base - NE Buttress and North Face

 

Date: 12/10/2011

 

Trip Report:

Josh and I decided to give the North Face of Chair Peak a go on Saturday, but we decided to turn around at the base. Cornfed's TR inspired us, as did the low avy danger and what we thought would have been a decent cycle of melt/re-freeze to build some ice, but what we found was not what we expected. We went in expecting mixed climbing, but from what we could see on pitch 1, it's doubtful one could fire in a single ice screw. Not knowing what pitch 2 and 3 would hold for us (I'd only been there in ideal winter conditions), not planning an an abundance of extra time in case we had slow sections on the ascent, and not knowing how the downclimb from the summit to the rap gully would look like, we decided to bail. Here is what it's looking like:

 

East Face

 

East Face and SE Shoulder

 

View from close to the notch

 

SE Shoulder

 

SE Shoulder

 

Base of North Face - pitch 1

 

Base of North Face - pitch 1

 

Base of North Face - pitch 1

 

 

There was a party of 2 climbing the NE Buttress via the right ramp as we bailed. We only saw them on pitch 1 before clouds moved in super heavy and whited us out.

 

Of course the North Face is climbable to those that are interested, but from what we saw, it would be more about dry-tooling than mixed climbing and could be time consuming.

 

We kept our eyes open for some good ice to crag on while hiking down to Source Lake and back out, but things weren't formed yet.

 

Gear Notes:

Gummy worms

 

Approach Notes:

We hiked in on boots. No flotation necessary. Lots of boot pack and skin tracks that are solid.

Edited December 14, 2011 by CamelJockey

[StephanieSavage]

Updated picture of Chair Peak from 12/12/11. This was taken from the saddle between Source Lake and Snow Lake.